


Condemned

by themasqueraded



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Blowjobs, Holocaust, M/M, Nazis, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-04 21:19:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themasqueraded/pseuds/themasqueraded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“One word<br/>Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:<br/>That word is love.”<br/>― Sophocles</p><p> </p><p>When Harry finds himself in the Labour Camp, Treblinka I he doesn't expect other than pain, but he finds something he never expected that leads him to hope. Nevertheless, he still knows he's condemned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Prologue

“No! “ Harry bellowed. “I’ll do anything! Please stop!” He begged, but the Germans weren’t listening. “STOP!” He felt the tears flowing streaming down his cheeks. 

“Shut up!” One of the men who was holding his sister, grabbed his shotgun and started hitting Harry hard on the head. “Shut the fuck up you worthless piece of shit! Shut up!” The young boy heard his mother gasp and beg the officer not to hurt him. But he kept going. She was now crying and yelling at them. Then Gemma started crying and struggling against the other German. 

“That’s it; I’ve had enough with these two!” Another officer who was red with anger and sweating all over took hold of his own shotgun and without hesitating shot Gemma right between her eyes. Anne let out a deafening shout, and before Harry could do something, anything to shut her up, another disturbing shot silenced the atmosphere. 

After that, Harry knew better than to start shouting, so he kept quiet and let the tears flow with more eagerness than before. His heart clenched, and his whole body felt weak. He could not believe what had just happened. 

“Now if you don’t shut up right now, you’ll get shot just as your mother and sister did!” The only brunette of the group warned Harry. 

They started dragging him along his own house, where his family had just been murdered. Harry was crying, of course, but he was doing his best not to let out any sob. 

Suddenly, a man with the same uniform as the one the officers had, came rushing to them.

“Where the hell have you been?” He exclaimed. The anger in his voice was evident. 

“We were just-“ 

“It doesn’t matter, Sergeant Schulz needs all of you right now” He turned around to leave, but the officers didn’t move. “What are you doing? Come on!” 

“But, sir, we haven’t dealt with this boy yet” They protested. 

“He’s just a boy, you just killed his whole family, he’s alone” He said it in a sarcastic tone. “He’s probably going to starve to death anyway” Harry flinched at these words. “Now come on!” 

The officers hesitated; they looked at Harry as if they were lions whose prey had just been taken away, but finally, they left. 

Harry was left alone, lying on the floor not daring to look up or move because he was scared he would see his mother or sister, a few meters away from him, already dead.


	2. Chapter 1

Harry was dearly welcomed in the Payne family. He and Liam had been best friends for seven of the ten years he had lived. As soon as Liam’s mom found out what had happened to the Styles, she took Harry as her own son and made the rest of her family do that as well. 

He had lived with them for nine years now and he couldn’t be better. He did miss his mother and sister every single day, but he knew things couldn’t get better. He had a family who he loved and cared about, and he lived with his best friend, also known as brother. 

The only thing keeping Harry and the Payne’s to be completely happy was the constant concern of the Germans doing what they did to Harry’s family. Harry had had nightmares or flashbacks if he could call it that way since that night, the image of her mother and sister dead kept appearing in his mind and he didn’t know how to stop it. Liam was a pretty good friend and he had always helped him forget, and let him know that he was safe, but the memories just wouldn’t leave; and the worst part was that whenever he remembered the happy moments he had shared with Anne and Gemma, the image of both of them lying on the floor with blood all around came to his head. So, he concluded it was best not to think about them at all. 

One night, Mrs. Payne was doing the dishes, her husband was reading a book and all of the kids were sleeping, when they heard a shout and a few seconds after that, they heard three shots. Mr. and Mrs. Payne rushed to their kids’ rooms and woke them all up. They turned off the lights and waited. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a basement or anywhere they could hide, so Mr. Payne clearly knew, they were waiting for their imminent deaths or the future he had always feared his children would have to live. 

Harry and Liam were sitting next to each other, not daring to breathe. Harry knew what was coming; he knew that they were going to die; he had experienced this exact feeling before. Only this time, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to escape. He was going to get shot along with the rest of his family. After all, this was the future he was destined to have. And all of this suffering was just because he was Jewish. 

He waited patiently for something to happen, but minutes passed and no one came, the house was completely silent and there were no signs that some was coming. 

They were about to turn the light of the room on, when someone opened the door with a loud bang and Harry heard the footsteps coming nearer and nearer. His heart was beating faster than it had ever beaten and his knees were shaking uncontrollably. Liam noticed this and grabbed the younger boy’s hand in an assuring way. Harry gripped his hand so hard that Liam thought for a moment that he was going to break it. 

Seconds later, a shadow appeared in the entrance of the room and switched the lights. Harry blinked several times to get used to the light, and then looked up to see a tall, robust man with the same uniform that the men who had killed his family were wearing. His heart ached, and the memories flashed through his mind. He pinched his own hand, and focused on the present, or else he would start crying, and he knew that wouldn’t lead him to any good. 

“They’re over here!” The man called. Then three other men came and without stopping to look at the family, walked over them to grab them by the hair and force them to stand up. Harry looked at the man who was holding him and for a second saw the officer that had shot his sister. He felt a shiver run down his spine and closed his eyes holding back  
the tears that were always threatening to come. 

“These two are too old” One of the Germans said to the others and then leaned in to whisper something to them. They nodded and without any warning, they loaded their gunshots and each one shot Mr. and Mrs. Payne twice. 

Harry felt like he was living a déjà vu, because as soon as their parents fell to the floor, Ruth started screaming and struggling against the officer, and the same man who killed Mr. Payne, shot her. 

Harry held his breath and the tears did come, but he did as he had done the night his own family was murdered, he remained quiet, letting the tears stream down his face. The only difference was that this time Liam and Nicola were trying to do the same and it literally hurt Harry’s heart to see them. 

“Now, you three, shut up and follow me” To Harry’s surprise, the man started walking out of the room. They didn’t kill him. They didn’t kill his best friend and what he had learned to call his sister. He survived to another of these encounters. 

As they were following the Germans, Liam leaned in and whispered to Harry,

“What are they going to do with us?” His voice was rough and raspy and it had changed. It wasn’t the same voice he had heard the day before.

“I don’t know, Liam” He said as softly and lowly as he could “I don’t know”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So yeah I'm starting this new story, I hope you like it so far :) My native language is not English, so I'm sorry for the grammar-spelling mistakes. Thanks for reading :)


	3. Chapter 2

They were thrown into a small truck with at least twenty people inside it. Most of them were weeping; the others were silent, with miserable looking faces. Harry, Liam and Nicola were just standing in the middle of the truck with blank stares and the ceiling. Harry wanted so badly to hug Liam, to tell him everything was going to be alright, but he knew it probably wouldn’t, and there were so many people in the truck, he could barely breathe properly, let alone move. The memory of him walking alone in the street after his family was taken from him came vaguely to his mind. 

They were in that truck for about two hours and as soon as they got out of it, Harry took a deep breath and calmed himself down; he was starting to feel claustrophobia stuck in there. It wasn’t a big relief though, he barely managed to take three long breaths and they were already being forced into an immense train with uncountable wagons. When they were settled in the train, which really meant standing and holding tight to each other to avoid any accident, Harry put his hands around Liam’s shoulders reassuringly and Liam did the same to Nicola. 

The train ride felt like hours, even days to Harry, he was so dizzy when they finally got to their destination that he was already feeling supper coming up through his stomach. 

The train doors were opened and some of the people, who were leaning on them for balance, fell to the floor. Everyone started getting off the train unsure of what to do next. As soon as Harry got off the train, he saw a woman with the familiar uniform, only with a skirt instead of pants yelling “Women, follow me! All of the women, over here!”.

Nicola grabbed both of Liam and Harry’s hands and said as fast as she could: “I love you both, take care of yourselves. I’ll see you soon” She kissed each boy on the cheek and started walking away. Tears started flowing down Liam’s face as he repeatedly said “I love you, Nicola”. His voice was trembling and it was in the same odd tone that Harry had heard before. Harry hesitated a little before he called “We’ll see you soon!” at Nicola. She seemed to have heard, but she didn’t turn around. And Harry knew it was probably because she knew he was lying. 

He may not have had a lot of knowledge about this Nazi thing, but he wasn’t stupid; he knew that what was coming wasn’t anything good. 

“Men, follow me this way! All of the men follow me!” A man yelled at the remaining people standing next to the train. 

Liam and Harry started walking slowly towards the line of men behind the German. Liam and Harry formed in the line without talking and followed the old man standing in front of them. Harry soon realized that they were dividing the group in two. His heart started racing.

“Whatever happens, we stick together” Harry whispered in Liam’s ear and the older boy nodded. 

They were getting closer to the division point and that’s when they noticed it was depending on their age. If the man was old, or a kid, they would send him to the left, if the man was young, they would send him to the right. Harry had an idea of why they were doing this, and he didn’t like it one bit. Even though he knew he and Liam would end up in the same line, he still felt a painful sorry for the ones who were sent to the left part. 

He soon would realize that maybe; just maybe it would’ve been best to have been sent to the left part rather than staying in the right one.

When only the young men, or the evidently strong ones were left, one of the officers guided them to what they were most likely call home from now on. 

All of the men walked into the barracks they were going to live in. Harry and Liam stayed close together until the last group of men entered the cell. Then a German stood in front of them with a frown on his face. 

“Listen up! I’m Sergeant Schulz. Right now you are the only group alive in this camp” A lot of gasps were heard and Liam tightened the grip on Harry’s hand. “Shut up” Sergeant Schulz snapped. “You are going to be sleeping here, during the day you’re going to be working on the construction of Treblinka II. There are going to be three officers looking out on you when working.  
There are some rules you must follow, and in any case of insurgency, you will be severely punished. First of all, you mustn’t question any order from any officer. If someone tries to escape, he will be punished by extermination. This isn’t a game; you must obey to everything that is told you to do. Tomorrow a whistle will sound and you must all be ready to work. Is it clear?” He roared. 

There were some weak ‘yes sir’s and the man left. 

Liam and Harry walked to one of the nearest platforms and settled in there. Harry noticed that next to them was a tall, dark haired boy that was probably the same age as theirs. 

He was alone and his eyes were red and puffy like if he had just cried a river. 

“Hey” Harry said softly. 

The boy didn’t turn to look at him. Harry frowned and went back to sitting next to Liam. He hadn’t spoken to Liam since their family was shot. 

“Liam, are you okay?” Harry asked putting one hand on Liam’s lap. Liam just shrugged. “Are you comfortable? I can give you part of my space, you know I’m lanky, I can fit in here” 

He tried again. Liam shrugged once more, and then looked up at Harry. 

“Y’know, I would have rather died than live to see what I saw” His voice was raspy and his eyes were watery and Harry just wanted all of that pain to leave Liam’s heart. He loathed all of these Germans; he felt an immense hatred towards them that he couldn’t even begin to explain. 

But he also felt so tired and weak that all he could do was hold Liam and lay down on the platforms to get some sleep. 'Tomorrow is surely going to be worse than today', Harry thought, and with that he dozed off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had some people complaining on this fic because it is disrespectful but I want to keep writing because my intention is not to offend, this is why I apologize if I offended anyone and I will post some links that I have used for research for anyone who's interested in knowing more about the topic. The links are right below! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186984/Stories-Treblinka-Last-living-survivors-speak-horrors-haunting-memories-Nazi-death-camp.html  
> http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/treblinkatest.html  
> http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/labourcamp.html


	4. Chapter 3

Liam and Harry woke up along with the others at the sound of a whistle. They all walked in group out of the barrack and there they met Sergeant Schulz, he was standing next to three other officers that looked a lot younger than him. 

“Today is your first day working on the construction of Treblinka II” Sergeant Schulz exclaimed “These are the soldiers that will be looking out on you when you’re working” He pointed at the three officers standing next to him. “Soldier Horan” he pointed at the short, blonde soldier, “Soldier Howitzer” he pointed at a tall brunette with a huge scar in his face, “and Soldier Tomlinson” he pointed at another short soldier with hazelnut hair with shining blue eyes and incredibly handsome. “They will lead you to the land you’re going to be working on. Now go!” He roared, suddenly getting mad for no specific reason. 

Harry looked at Soldier Tomlinson for a few seconds, admiring how penetrating his eyes were and, even though his stare was cold and he was glaring at anyone he looked at, he still looked unconditionally beautiful. The young officer, who seemed to be the most authoritarian of the three of them, turned around and made a sign that no one understood, he started walking and everyone followed him. 

While walking, Harry found himself looking over all of the heads in front of him to find the blue eyed boy, but as soon as he realized the stupidity he was doing he shook his head and continued walking among all his fellow companions. He felt guilty for the sudden interest he felt towards this guy, he wasn’t supposed to be feeling this way. He was screwed if someone caught him staring at the soldier the way he was looking at him, because other than the fact that he was Jewish, he was gay. ‘How inconvenient’ Harry thought as he walked, already feeling the sun already burning the back of his neck and his forehead. 

Liam was walking next to him, and next to them was the dark haired boy he had seen the night before. Seeing this boy, walking alone with his head down and with a miserable look, Harry felt extremely grateful, because after all, he still had his best friend by his side. 

They walked for what felt like hours to Harry when they finally arrived to the place they were going to be working on. It was a large, deserted land covered of dry grass, in one corner there was a pile of materials that Harry guessed were for them to construct the camp. What was this camp for? He had no idea. He and Liam had been taken from Warsaw to Treblinka. The only Jews who inhabited or were gassed in the Treblinka camp were from Warsaw. Probably, Harry thought, Treblinka II is for people from other regions of Poland. The thing was: Harry and none of the others were aware of what they were going to build. 

When they all arrived to future Treblinka II, Soldier Howitzer gathered all of the men together and spoke:

“This is the camp you’re going to be working on. The materials you’ll use are right there” He pointed at the pile of materials Harry had seen earlier. “What each of you has to do today is to do take the bricks that are there to there” He showed them the place they had to take the bricks to. Harry gasped; they had to walk almost the entire land with the bricks. “You have to take ten bricks each round and come back for the next pile. Understood?!” he shouted. They nodded. Soldier Tomlinson stood close to Soldier Howitzer and whispered something in his ear. 

“If we catch you carrying less than ten bricks you will get shot right in place” Howitzer warned them. 

“C’mon let’s get started with this” Harry told Liam and they marched off to take the bricks. 

\------------

 

Harry was exhausted, he literally thought he might fall and all of the bricks would fall with him, and if he wasn’t dead by then, one of the soldiers would definitely shot him. He was sweating more than he had ever sweated in his entire life. Liam was stronger than Harry, so he was very ahead of him. The dark haired boy was close to him, though, and he also looked like he was about to give up. Harry found this guy so mysterious, he really wanted to get to know him, but at the moment he was way too tired and miserable to even pronounce a word, so he just kept walking. He was doing his best not to stop and rest for a second, but he couldn’t do it anymore, so he stopped walking, and put the bricks on the ground while he caught his breath. 

“You better pick them up, or they’ll shoot you” The mysterious guy said in a low, raspy voice and continued walking.

Harry quickly picked them up and caught up with the boy. 

“How do you know that?” He asked curiously. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” 

“Not for me”

They stayed silent for some minutes.

“Thanks for the warning” Harry spoke again. 

“You’re welcome; I’m not really eager to see someone get shot right now” He said. Harry smiled.

“I’m Harry, by the way” He said hoping this could be the beginning of a new friendship, if you could call it like that. 

“I’m Zayn” He presented himself. “I’d shake your hand, but…” He said almost sadly. 

“So, is there any relative here with you?” Harry asked and regretted it when he saw Zayn’s face.

“No” He admitted “My whole family was murdered by them” Harry felt a knot in his throat, why was he so stupid to ask those kind of questions. 

“Mine was too” Harry said, trying to ignore the mental images. 

“I thought that Liam guy was your brother?” Zayn asked confused.

“He’s a friend; I lived with him and his family when mine was killed. And how do you know his name’s Liam?” Harry asked as he stopped for a second to catch his breath. 

“I heard you trying to comfort him yesterday. He seemed pretty upset” Zayn raised his brows as if saying that he understood. 

“Yeah, his family was taken away from him just yesterday” Harry said because it literally hurt him to say ‘killed’ or ‘murdered’. He was used to saying that his own family was killed,   
but not Liam’s, everything of it was still so new to Harry, he still didn’t dare use the word kill. 

“I’m sorry about that, I know what he’s going through” Zayn said again sadly. 

“I can’t get him to talk to me, it’s so sad to see him like this. And I’m trying to be there for him, just as he was there for me when it happened, but he’s making it impossible” Harry confessed, he felt comfortable with Zayn, like he could trust him. 

“Just give him some time, he’ll be just fine if you give him time” Zayn advised.

They kept walking, Harry’s exhaustion faded when he started talking to Zayn. They were getting closer to the pile of bricks, when Harry caught a glimpse of Soldier Tomlinson walking towards them. His heart started racing; what if Zayn was carrying less than ten bricks? What if he himself forgot to count the bricks and was carrying less than ten? 

“Maybe if you stopped chatting like little girls you would be more useful, wouldn’t you?” Soldier Tomlinson said in a rough voice, but it didn’t suit him. His voice was so sweet, that anger just didn’t suit those lips. 

“Sorry” Zayn muttered, glaring at the floor. 

“Go back to work before I shoot both of you” He said with a murderous look to Harry, who just managed to nod and keep walking. He made an attempt to look back at Soldier Tomlinson, just to look into those beautiful eyes again, but Zayn muttered a “don’t” and walked a little faster to get away from Harry.


	5. Chapter 4

Harry had been one week now in Treblinka Labour Camp and thankfully none of the men working with him had gotten shot. That changed on Tuesday of his second week there, though. They were working as usual on Treblinka II, they had stopped carrying bricks and now they were carrying some kind of steel tubes. The new rule was to carry five tubes per round, and the same punishment was applied if someone was carrying less than five tubes. Harry had finally found out what they were constructing, he had asked one of the oldest men in the group, the man had just looked at him with a miserable look and told him “Gas chambers, we’re constructing the gas chambers”. With that Harry just shut his mouth and went to sleep, he cried himself to sleep that night; they were working so hard on chambers that would kill him and everyone else at the end. Liam tried to calm him down by putting an arm around him and whispering in his ear that the man was probably just joking around. Harry knew he wasn’t joking though, he had seen the look in the man’s eyes, the hopelessness in them. And after the tears stopped coming, he realized that he was irrevocably condemned. 

The usual whistle rang in Harry’s ear as he stretched himself and woke Liam and Zayn up. They had become very good friends in just that week. They kept talking when carrying the tubes because there was really nothing else they could do. They were careful when Soldier Tomlinson passed by though, Zayn would always walk a little faster and Harry a little slower, so it didn’t seem like they were talking about how much loath they felt towards the people that had done this to them, or about their life back in Warsaw, or about anything really. 

That Tuesday, there was only one difference from the other days they had been working; Soldier Tomlinson was in a bad mood. He was usually very harsh to everyone, but today it was different. He was in a really bad mood. 

They walked to the construction area and without any order they all walked, picked the tubes up and started their journey to the other side of the land. It was very hot, especially at midday when the sun was right on top of them. Most of the men, including Harry were so tired they could barely walk straight, except for Liam; Liam was surely the strongest man they had. 

Zayn and Harry were so tired they weren’t even talking; they were just walking side by side with their heads down trying to ignore the overwhelming heat. The steel tubes were so heavy it was hurting his joints and the sun was making him dizzy. Zayn was also fighting to keep himself walking and they were gasping. Harry looked around, his vision was blurry but he could still hear the panting of the others, he could still see the weakness in their knees. He felt bad for them; he was probably the youngest guy in the group. There were fifty year old people. 

The pain in Harry’s joints was getting worse and his dizziness was not helping.

Harry raised his head and saw Soldier Tomlinson doing the usual review of the amount of tubes people were carrying. He stopped random men and counted the tubes. He stopped one of the men, who was looking very tired indeed, he looked like he was about to pass out. Soldier Tomlinson counted the tubes he was carrying and frowned. 

“There are only four tubes” the soldier said.

Harry was really close to the man and he could see that his only reaction was to burst out crying, he tried to speak but it seemed like he was choking in his own tears. The curly haired boy felt a knot in his throat when Soldier Tomlinson grabbed a hold of his gunshot and pointed it at the man’s chest. The exhausted man kept trying to talk but he literally could not get the words out. The soldier didn’t hesitate and pulled his trigger, and with that the poor man that was crying just seconds ago was lying on the floor with a bleeding hole in the middle of his chest. Harry looked at the soldier and caught the cold stare he was giving to the dead man. He didn’t care one bit, did he?  
Harry forced himself to keep it together, or else he would get shot as well Harry looked at the tubes scattered all over the ground. His bit his lip and kept walking. Soldier  
Tomlinson was about to turn around when he saw Liam on his way back to where the pile of tube was.

“You!” He growled at the brown eyed boy. “Take the body to that storeroom. Soldier Horan will go with you, if you try anything he’ll shoot you right in place” the soldier told him and pointed at the blonde soldier. Liam nodded, picked the body and started walking with Soldier Horan by his side. 

“Go back to work you pigs!” the blue eyed soldier roared when he noticed that most of the men had stopped dead when he shot the poor man. 

Harry and Zayn walked fast past the place where the man had had been killed and dropped the tubes when they got to the pile. 

\-------------

A few hours later, the whistle sounded when everyone was letting the tubes in the pile, they all sighed in relief and started walking to the entrance of the construction area. Harry, Liam and Zayn were walking side by side. Liam’s eyes were puffy from crying, he may be good at hiding emotions, but he sure is an emotional guy. When he carried the dead body to the storeroom he couldn’t help but cry. And, he had told Harry, Soldier Horan seemed to be fine with it. 

The curly haired boy noticed that Soldier Tomlinson dropped something like a bracelet while they were walking, and he didn’t realize it. Harry hurried for God knows what reason and picked it up, but he didn’t give it back to the soldier, he went back to Zayn and Liam and kept walking with them, he placed the bracelet on his hand and stared at it. It was beautiful; it was made of gold, Harry could tell, with the word ‘faith’ carved on it. It was really simple, but still very pretty. Harry put the bracelet in his pocket and waited for them to get to the camp for him to give it to the soldier.

When Soldier Tomlinson opened the door of the camp, everyone got inside and walked now freely to their barrack.

The three boys were the last ones to enter the camp. Harry looked back and saw Soldier Tomlinson locking the entrance, this was his opportunity. If he did it later, the officer might think he wanted to steal it.

“I’ll be right back” He muttered softly to Liam and Zayn and walked back to where the soldier was. 

His heart started beating faster: 'what if the soldier thought I was trying to steal the bracelet? After all, he hated us. It wasn’t that hard to be punished just for taking his bracelet.' Harry thought.  
What if he killed him just because he was in a bad mood? He ignored the nerves that were consuming him and walked rather fast to where Soldier Tomlinson was.  
When he got there, the officer turned around and was about to shout when Harry showed him the bracelet; he was too scared to say something so he just put it in his hand for the other boy to take it. 

The soldier looked shocked for a second; he quickly rolled his sleeve and didn’t see the bracelet. Harry assumed it was really important for him since something like panic dominated the soldier’s face before he could hide it.

He then looked at Harry with the same murderous look he always had. Harry flinched and shut his eyes in case that the officer was going to hit him, but he didn’t. Harry opened his eyes and the officer was looking at him harshly. He grabbed the bracelet sort of gently and gave Harry a ‘now leave’ look. Harry obeyed and left as fast as he could. 

When he got to the barrack, Liam and Zayn were sitting on their usual spot talking. Harry walked over to them and smiled. He didn’t know why, but he was feeling something odd in his stomach, something good for a change. 

“Where the hell were you?” Liam asked worried. 

“One of the soldiers dropped his bracelet so I gave it back to him” Harry answered simply, hiding a smile. He didn’t know why the heck he wanted to smile, or why he felt good. Like, he just saw this soldier murder someone for no reason, and he still felt attraction for him? There was something seriously wrong with him. 

“We thought that Tomlinson officer had shot you or something” Zayn said. 

“He didn’t, he just took the bracelet and told me to leave” Harry said calmly. 

“And what’s that stupid smile?” Liam snapped.

Harry didn’t answer; he just turned around and told himself to stop smiling, to stop doing whatever he was doing, because it was not going to lead him anywhere. Then he corrected himself, it was going to lead him to death, that is.


	6. Chapter 5

Harry had been in Treblinka one complete month now. He and Liam became really good friends with Zayn, and so the three of them never left each other’s sides. Liam was in a better mood now, he started talking a lot more when he met Zayn; those two seemed to have clicked really easily. Zayn was also more cheerful than when Harry met him. They even joked sometimes, and once in a while they would all crack up laughing. This wasn’t very common though; most of the time they were on labour, everything was the same as it had been on the first day. Liam would always be the strongest and fastest one, and Harry and Zayn would always go way behind him just complaining or talking or sometimes they were so tired they just focused on keeping their feet moving. They had carried all of the materials from one side of the area to the other so they had now started working on the base of the gas chamber. Harry still felt so repulsed by what they were doing, but he couldn’t question it if he didn’t want to get killed. 

There was a change since the first week Harry was in the camp though; he felt a pair of blue eyes on him a lot, especially when he was working. His job in this construction was to pass the bricks that would be the base of the chamber to Zayn so he could pass it to someone else until they got to the actual construction. It wasn’t as simple as it sounded though; if he or Zayn or the man who passed him the bricks dropped them, they were all in huge trouble. One time, the man who started the chain of passing bricks dropped a pile of them and he got scourged. Anyways, whenever he was receiving or passing the pile of bricks he felt Soldier Tomlinson’s eyes right on him, even if he wasn’t the one in charge on checking on them. 

Harry also looked at Soldier Tomlinson a lot though; he did it when they were walking back to Treblinka I, or when they were given ‘lunch’. That’s what the officers called it anyway, because it was really just a dry piece of bread and water. Soldier Tomlinson was the one who had to hand out the bread and the water. Harry noticed that the blue eyed soldier glared at all of the men who passed by, and it wasn’t different with Harry. The only difference was that when he was walking away with his piece of bread he still felt the soldier’s glare on him. He didn’t dare to look back though; he was afraid something bad might happen if he did.

 

One day, Harry couldn’t stand the constant feeling of the soldier’s eyes on him, so he asked Liam when they were on the line to get their lunch. 

“Hey, can you do me a favour?” He asked in a whisper since they were getting closer. 

“Sure, what is it?” 

“When I get my lunch, would you just check if Soldier Tomlinson looks at me after he’s given it? Like, if he’s staring at me” Harry says. Liam just gives him a confused look. 

“Why the hell do you want me to do that?” He asked.

“Just do it and I’ll explain later, yeah?” Harry said quickly.

“Sure, whatever” Liam answered absentmindedly, looking back at Zayn. 

When it was Harry’s turn, he didn’t look at the soldier in the eye; he just received his bread and water and kept walking. He then joined Liam and Zayn in the usual spot they ate (they had exactly five minutes to eat). 

“So?” Harry asked curiously. 

“Yeah, he kept looking at you but just for a few seconds, then he went back to handing out lunches. Why do you want to know anyway?” Liam asked annoyed. 

“It’s just that I think he looks at me like more than he should” Harry said slowly and sighed when he received two frowning looks. 

“So what?” Zayn spat. “Harry the soldiers look at whoever the fuck they want to look at”.

Harry shook his head, knowing that it wasn’t normal for him to feel the soldier’s eyes on him all day long. He decided to keep quiet though, he didn’t want to annoy the lads just because he had some sort of a crush on the soldier. Well, it wasn’t a real crush; he just loved the color of his eyes and the softness of his face when he caught him off-guard, when he wasn’t glaring. 

They ate in silence and went back to work as soon as the whistle sounded. 

They worked until late afternoon and ended up exhausted as always. They weren’t getting any other meal, and the heat was getting worse with time. Harry’s stripped shirt was already so sweaty and dirty he didn’t dare to smell it or even look at it. He hadn’t had a shower in ages, his mouth was so dry and his joints had started aching a lot more lately. 

They walked back to the camp, Harry was feeling more tired than ever. It wasn’t because of all the work they had been doing today, it was just because he couldn’t even get himself to sleep anymore and he was so hungry and disgusted by himself.

Harry, Zayn and Liam got back to the barrack and threw themselves to the platforms. Harry slept in the corner of the platform, that meant he was next to the door or the barrack, next to him slept Liam and next Zayn. 

Liam and Zayn had become so close within that month sometimes they even cuddled themselves to sleep. Once in a while, Liam would put an arm around Harry and brush his fingers through his curls, and that would relax Harry and he would get some sleep, but again, that happened just once in a while. This night wasn’t that once in a while occasion, so Harry just wrapped his legs in his arms and tried to put his mind in blank. He didn’t think it would work, but it miraculously did and he got the rest that he needed so desperately. 

*

The next day, the whistle sounded and Harry woke Liam up while Zayn stretched his arms. They walked zombie-like to the outside of the barrack to find the usual three soldiers standing in front of them. This time, Soldier Tomlinson didn’t order them to move though. Instead he cleared his throat and said:

“Alright, today Sergeant Schulz will be visiting the construction to see how it is going. If you don’t want to get shot, you better work your ass off and show him that you are good enough to stay” 

Then he started walking towards the entrance of the camp and everyone followed. 

They did their usual long walk to the construction area and stopped when Soldier Howitzer stood in front of them to speak. 

“Sergeant Schulz won’t be here until noon, but don’t think we won’t be proving your abilities as well. You will have to work hard, as Soldier Tomlinson already said, if you want to live” He growled. 

Harry and Zayn walked to their working spot and started passing bricks. The curly haired boy started looking for the soldiers, well for Soldier Tomlinson, but he didn’t see any of them around. A few minutes later, he saw the hazelnut haired soldier approaching them; Harry looked away and tried to focus on the bricks and only the bricks. The soldier started from the man that received the pile of bricks and placed them as the second layer of the base. He checked the man from top to bottom, he made the man take his shirt off,   
Harry didn’t know why he did that, but he guessed they were making all of them do it. He did the same with three other men when he finally got to Zayn. The dark haired boy just kept passing the bricks and ignored the soldier’s presence completely, until he told him to take his shirt off. Zayn did as he was told, and Harry noticed that he was very skinny, to the point that he could literally count the boy’s ribs. He hadn’t seen his own chest in a while and there was a huge probability that he was as skinny as Zayn. 

When it was Harry’s turn, he tried to copy Zayn. He did his best to ignore Soldier Tomlinson’s big blue eyes laid on him as he passed the bricks. 

“Take off your shirt” the soldier said in that sweet, fragile, beautiful voice. Even if the blue eyed boy had intended it to sound harsh and demanding, Harry still found it beautiful, like music to his ears. 

Harry unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. He stayed as still as he could, while Soldier Tomlinson observed him, his arms, his naked chest, his flat, starved stomach. Harry didn’t know if it was just because it was him and it felt like it lasted longer, or if it was real, because the soldier stood there looking at Harry for what he felt like hours. Then he gave a little nod to Harry which meant he could continue working. He was putting his shirt back on when he couldn’t help but notice that Soldier Tomlinson looked back at him and his shirtless body quickly before he turned around. 

\---------------------

 

It was already past noon when Sergeant Schulz finally arrived. They were still working on the same thing; Harry was already getting very dizzy from doing the same movement all day long. When the sergeant got there, the three soldiers greeted him with the Nazi Salute roaring “Hail Hitler!”.  
Sergeant Schulz walked slowly to the other side of the future chamber and started checking out how things were going. Then he got to the side where Harry was working. Harry then heard the sergeant asking the three soldiers about the physical conditions of the inmates. Soldier Horan was the first one to speak.

“They’re all fine. There’s no one with bad conditions that won’t allow them to keep working properly” He said. Then he turned to Soldier Howitzer.

“Three of them have god severe wounds” the tall soldier said shortly.

“Should they be killed though?” Sergeant Schulz asked impatiently.

“I think they ought to be sent to the infirmary, that will do for them” He answered, but to Harry he looked like he wanted to kill them himself. 

“What about your group?” He turned to look at Soldier Tomlinson. Harry caught a glimpse of the blue eyed soldier turning to look at him just for a second before he turned back and answered.

“They’re all in perfect conditions, there are really strong ones in this group” Soldier Tomlinson said. 

“Perfect” Sergeant Schulz looked pleased. “I’ll be visiting in a few weeks” He announced and with that he was off. 

Some of the men working in Harry’s group were looking at the officers talking; Harry guessed they heard the same as he did. When Soldier Horan and Soldier Howitzer went back to their groups, Soldier Tomlinson turned their back on them and glared at them.

“What are you looking at? Go back to work you vermin!” He growled. 

Suddenly a loud crack and a crashing noise came from the other side of the construction. Soldier Tomlinson wrinkled his nose and turned his attention to where the noise had come from, which Harry found oddly adorable and instantly felt bad about it. They all tried to see what had happened but no one could take a proper look since they were afraid that if they moved they got shot.   
Harry could hear some shouting though; it was most likely Soldier Howitzer’s. 

Harry was still trying to take a look when Zayn shook Harry’s shoulder so spontaneously it made Harry jump. 

“What? Can you see anything?” Harry asked. Zayn was climbed in a portable staircase, so he could see all around the camp.

“Harry, it’s Liam” Harry froze. “They’re taking him away, I don’t know why, but there’s a tube on the floor and Howitzer is taking him away” Zayn said in some sort of shocked way. 

“W-what?” That was all Harry could manage to say.

“Where are they taking him?” He heard Zayn ask to another man behind him. 

“They’re probably going to scourge him” The man answered. 

Harry’s heart skipped a beat and he suddenly unfroze. He dropped the bricks he was holding and ran towards the direction everyone was looking at. As soon as he got closer he captured Soldier Howitzer taking Liam by his shoulders and dragging him near the storeroom. 

“You’re going to learn how to do things right!” the soldier roared. “Useless piece of shit”

“LIAM!” Harry screamed louder than he thought it would sound. “Stop, Liam! LIAM! Please stop, please!” He literally felt like he was tearing his throat apart, but he didn’t care. “LIAM! Please leave him!” And just when he was going to go hoarse, he felt two arms grab him by the back and drag him back to his working place. 

“Shut up!” Soldier Tomlinson ordered. 

Harry did but just because he was too shocked to do anything else. 

“Now go back to work!” The older boy pushed him rather softly towards the line of men passing the bricks. 

Harry went back to work with a knot in his throat and an empty feeling in his stomach, not because of the hunger, but because of the uncertainty. After that, he felt the hot tears streaming down his face and as usual, the blue eyes staring at his back as he had never felt it before.


	7. Chapter 6

Later that day, Harry noticed that Liam hadn’t come back and it had been hours since they took him away. The soldiers were making them work more hours than usual and the usual exhaustion was already affecting Harry. Besides that, he was extremely worried about Liam; he kept looking at the storeroom to see if there were any signs that he was coming back, but there weren’t. He felt something building in his chest; he wouldn’t be able to manage if Liam had been killed. Apart from Zayn, who was clearly his friend but he had just met him a month ago, Liam was the only person Harry could count on, the only ‘family’ he had. The pain would be unbearable.

A few hours later, he couldn’t stand it anymore, so he decided to ask. Yes, he knew that just by asking he was risking his life, but he had to know, the knot in his throat was already hurting him. 

He waited until Soldier Tomlinson came to check on the group to ask him. Sometimes Harry wished Soldier Horan was in charge of their group, he never saw him get as mad as the other soldiers did. But again, Harry felt this sort of attraction towards Soldier Tomlinson and deep down inside, he knew he was happy that he was the one in charge. 

When the soldier finally showed up, Harry passed the pile of bricks and took a deep breath. 

“Excuse me, sir” He said as politely and calmly as he could. Soldier Tomlinson turned around and seemed more than angry, curious. 

“What?” He snapped. Harry passed another pile of bricks.

“I was wondering if you could tell me where Soldier Howitzer is” He said because he didn’t find a way to ask about Liam, it’s not like the soldier would know his name.

“That’s none of your business” The soldier shot him a threatening look. Harry gulped and tried again. 

“I k-know, but I just want to know if the guy he took away is going to come back soon or…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. 

Soldier Tomlinson looked away for a second then turned back and glanced at Harry. 

“They will be back” He answered shortly and left.

Harry felt as if a big weigh left his back and he could breathe calmly again.  
“Thank you” Harry smiled at him without expecting anything back, but to his great surprise Soldier Tomlinson nodded back at him and for one of the first times ever, Harry noticed that his stare wasn’t as cold as it had always been.

Darkness dominated daylight and the whistle finally sounded. Harry hurried to pass the bricks to Zayn and started walking to the entrance; the dark haired boy by his side. 

“I really hope to see Liam when we get there” Harry said. Zayn snorted sadly. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked now worried.

“Y’know even if he’s there he won’t be for long” Zayn said so lowly Harry could barely hear him. Now it was his turn to snort. 

“Of course he will” He said almost cheerfully. “You know Liam’s a strong guy, he’ll be just fine” Zayn didn’t answer.

They walked quietly to the barracks and to Harry’s delight, Liam was lying there. 

“Oh, thank God!” The curly haired boy exclaimed approaching Liam and making an attempt to hug him, but Liam just flinched and didn’t respond. “What’s wrong?” Harry backed away carefully. 

“They scourged my whole back, Harry” Liam said looking down at his hands. “I’m barely able to move now”. 

Harry felt the weigh he thought gone right on his back again. He had been so worried about the possibility of Liam being killed that he had forgotten about the scourges. He felt the tears coming once again. 

“I’m so sorry Li, I’ll take care of you. Zayn and I will” Harry assured him. “You’ll be perfectly fine soon” He tried to encourage, but he failed as he burst out crying on Liam’s shoulders.

“It’s not your fault, Haz” Liam tried his best to hug his friend tightly. “I’m sure I’ll heal and go back on track. It’s just a matter of time” He held his hand reassuringly, as he always did. 

Harry raised his head and wished he hadn’t done it: He clearly saw how Zayn and Liam were looking at each other as miserably as they possibly could, like if they were never going to see each other again. 

*

A few days passed by and Liam wasn’t healing at all, his bruises were the same dark red color as they had been the first day. Harry noticed Liam wasn’t doing any good at work, he got tired very fast and he couldn’t carry the steel tubes as easily as he did before. This caused Soldier Howitzer to yell at him and insult him every time he did something wrong.  
Harry and Zayn kept looking over him to see if he was doing well. Harry knew that if he kept going on like this, the thing he feared the most would most likely happen. He knew that the soldiers were not willing to keep an inmate in the conditions in which he was. But he didn’t like to think about it, so he just did his best to take care of him as much as he could. He would give half of the bread he was given to Liam and if he was thirsty, Zayn would give him his water. Then, Harry and Zayn would end up sharing. 

Harry could still feel the beautiful blue eyes on him as he worked or as he gave him his food to Liam, he could even feel the eyes on him when they were walking back to the barrack. It was nice actually; Harry knew he should find it annoying, or creepy, but he really just found it nice. He had no idea why, but he liked it. He hadn’t talked about it with the boys since the time he asked them to check and they both ignored him and continued their conversation. He also knew that it was stupid to believe there was something behind the looks, but he clung on to that just to get that warm feeling in his stomach he usually got when he caught the soldier staring at him. 

 

One afternoon, Harry was now passing steel tubes that would help the chamber to support itself. He was the one who passed it and Liam’s group was in charge of placing them. It was clearly a harder job than Harry’s, that’s why they had put the strongest men in that group and the weakest in Harry’s. Anyways, Harry was checking on Liam as always and he noticed how he dropped one of the steel tubes, he immediately hurried to pick it up before the soldiers noticed and kept working. Even though they were far away, Harry could still see the red in his eyes and the urge of crying on his face. He could tell he was in pain. 

Zayn was also looking over at Liam and frowning. They looked at each other and the raven haired boy gave him a sad look, basically telling Harry that Liam was hopeless, which just hurt Harry’s heart. He turned around and kept working, making sure not to look back at Zayn. It was an odd feeling, really. It just hurt him to know there was the slightest possibility of Liam to die. 

At lunch time, Harry, Zayn and Liam were sitting next to each other eating quietly. Harry could tell Liam wasn’t fine, he was ill, he needed attention, but he honestly didn’t know what to do. It even kept him awake at night; he felt the urge to do something, but there was no way of doing it. He didn’t have any kind of medicine or doctor. The soldiers were the ones to decide when someone ought to go to the infirmary. 

They kept working till the late afternoon (luckily, they let them out early) and then walked back to the barracks. Liam was so tired that he was literally crawling, so Harry and Zayn held his arms and helped him, even though they were also exhausted. It wasn’t really how much they worked; it was mostly the lack of food and rest what had them so tired.  
After what felt like hours, they finally got to the barrack and Liam threw himself to his spot in the platform. Harry found that completely normal until the older boy started coughing abruptly, but it wasn’t the normal kind of cough, it looked like if he was choking.

“Liam?” Harry asked scared as Zayn approached the other boy and sat next to him. “Liam, are you alright?” Harry repeated, trying to keep calm. 

It was a really stupid thing to expect Liam to answer since now it was pretty definite that he was choking. 

“Go get some help” Zayn demanded looking at Harry then back at Liam and holding his face carefully. 

Harry didn’t hesitate; he rushed to the other side of the barrack and started asking for a doctor. No one answered, so Harry assumed there wasn’t any doctor. He thought desperately of what his options were. Liam was dying, he had to act fast. 

Without thinking it twice, he hurried back to where Liam and Zayn were. 

“C’mon! There’s no one here who can help us, come on!” 

“Harry, they won’t help you. There’s got to be a doctor in here” Zayn said. “I’ll stay here looking for a doctor, there’s got to be one!” He said more to himself than to Harry.

“Okay, I’ll be back” Harry patted Zayn on the back and grabbed Liam’s arms. 

He knew he was risking both of their lives, but again he always was, no matter what he did, he was always in danger of being murdered.

He walked as fast as he could to the infirmary with an almost fainted Liam in his arms. When he got there Harry saw Soldier Tomlinson sitting next to the entrance with a gun in one hand and a cup in the other. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” He spat gripping harder on his gunshot. “Go back to the barrack if you don’t want to- .” 

“He’s dying!” Harry interrupted him. “Please, I need help! He’s dying, please!” He begged desperately. 

“If he’s dying, then let him” The soldier said trying to pretend calmness. 

“Sir, you don’t understand. Please, I’m begging you, please. I need help, please!” 

“You are not allowed to be here, do you not understand that?” The soldier spat. “Leave, right now!” He commanded. 

“NO! Please, sir” He fell on his knees because Liam’s weigh was too hard to carry on his own. “Please, he’s everything I have! Please help me! I need him, I need him!” Harry was almost shouting. He felt hot tears flowing through his cheeks, but he didn’t care. He was not going to let Liam die. “I need him” He was now whispering, finding it hard to breathe. 

“Alright, fine” He heard Soldier Tomlinson say. “I’ll give you some medicine and water. But you cannot let anyone know about this. Anyone. Understood?” He said harshly. 

“Of course not” Harry answered. “Thank you. Thank you so much” 

“I’ll be right back” The soldier ignored him and walked inside the infirmary. 

Harry waited trying to catch his breath back. He was running his fingers through Liam’s hair whispering that it was going to be fine.

Seconds later, Soldier Tomlinson came back with a glass of water and three or four pills. 

“Make him take them” the blue eyed boy ordered. Harry obediently took the glass of water and the pills. 

“Liam” He put the pills on his hands and placed them in front of Liam, but he just shook his head. “Li, they will make you feel better, take them” He insisted, but Liam shook his head and refused to open his mouth. “Liam, I need you to take this, please” Harry was breathing fast and loud now. “Liam, just take them!” He snapped getting annoyed by himself: he couldn’t even get his best friend to take some pills. Tears of desperation started streaming down his cheeks. He was tired of crying, he really was. 

“Let me help you” said the soldier when he realized Harry was crying. He took the pills and asked Liam to take them if he wanted to live. Pretty forthright, Harry thought. But it worked, Liam took the pills and Harry gave him the water so he could swallow. 

“He needs to rest now. It’s better for him not to move though” The soldier said. “Just get him in here, he’ll rest on the bed” He opened the doors of the infirmary and held it open for Harry to drag Liam across it. 

Then he put him on the bed while the soldier locked the door. 

“He’ll have to rest for a few minutes, then you two go back to the barracks” He said in a harsh tone. Harry nodded slowly. 

“Thank you so much for doing this, I really mean it” He looked at the soldier in the eyes. “I don’t know how to thank you enough” 

The soldier stayed quiet for a moment or two and then said:

“I kind of… understand” he admitted. Harry furrowed his eyebrows. “Like, I understand the need you feel to save him, because” He stopped for a minute “well, because he’s the only person you have left” He said looking down. 

“I really don’t think you understand” Harry found himself saying.

“Why?” He was surprised to hear the soldier’s answer. 

“Because I doubt the Nazis killed your whole family, then killed the family that welcomed you with them. I doubt they literally gave an end to every single thing you had, except  
your best friend” He said, and as usual, he felt the tears threatening to come. 

“Well” The soldier started, but found nothing else to say. 

Harry was about to say something when the older boy finally opened his mouth to speak. 

“I don’t mean it in that way. But I do know what it feels like to try to save that only person you have left, only this time, you were able to save him” He said sadly. Harry looked at him.

“I’m sorry” Was the only thing he could think of.

“You know no one must know about this. Absolutely no one” The soldier said with a worried tone. 

“Why did you do it then?” Harry asked. “Why did you help us?”

The soldier turned to look at the unconscious Liam, and smiled to himself a little bit. 

“Because I understand” He said again. “You know, my father was a Commandant, he was really into this war thing. He left my mother and me alone for he had to be faithful to his beloved country, and…” He closed his eyes for a second and opened them; Harry felt the blue penetrating on his own eyes. “Well, he never came back” He said quickly. 

“I’m sorry” Harry said.

“You said that already” Soldier Tomlinson smiled.

“I still don’t get it” Harry said lamely. 

“My mother and I were left alone, as I said; she was the only person I could count on” He explained. “But she couldn’t deal with the pain or my father gone, and she got sick. I tried to help her, I brought doctors home and I took care of her, but she just didn’t seem to want to live anymore” There was a short pause before he said “So she died”. 

Harry looked up at him and felt something inside his chest; he was truly sorry for him. He knew what losing his family felt like. 

“I am honestly sorry” He said. “You know it wasn’t your fault though, right?” He asked the unnecessary question and regretted it at once. 

The hazelnut haired boy didn’t seem to mind, though. He actually gave him a weak smile and sighed. 

“I should have done something” he seemed to break. “I was such a bad son; she didn’t even want to live with my father gone. I wasn’t worth it for her to live.”

“Maybe your father just needed her there with him more than you needed her here with you” Harry said. “Haven’t you thought about that?” 

He knew it was a pretty stupid logic, but that was what kept him going on when his mother was killed; maybe his father needed them more than Harry needed them.  
The soldier looked at him and nodded with a slight smile. 

“Yeah… Maybe” he said. 

After a few minutes of just looking at each other’s eyes, which was the most beautiful thing Harry had done in a lot of time; the soldier checked his watch and stood up. 

“Uh, you should probably go” He said as he reached for his keys. 

Harry didn’t say anything; he just woke Liam up who seemed to be in much less pain than before. 

“Come on Li, let’s go” He whispered in his ear, as Liam rubbed his eyes like a little kid and got up. 

“Thank you so much, um…”

“Louis” the soldier said gently.

“Thank you” He said again. 

“You’re welcome” He answered. “Now leave before someone sees you, and remember what I told you, no one can know about this” 

“No one will” Harry assured him and started walking away with Liam clinging on his shoulders. Without thinking about it, he turned around and said “I’m Harry, by the way” then he turned his head back before he could see the reaction on the soldier’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I just wanted to say thank you for the support and there's now a trailer for the fic, so go check it out and give it a thumbs-up! Wow now I feel like a youtuber... But yeah that's it, make sure to check the trailer and thank you for reading :)  
> Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsaVxknLY4E&feature=em-upload_owner


	8. Chapter 7

The medicine Soldier Tomlinson gave to Liam worked out just fine for one week. Unfortunately, he started showing signs of weakness and illness again after that week. He started coughing a lot and his pace became much slower than it was before. Harry and Zayn started noticing this on a Saturday morning; they talked about it, but agreed that they couldn’t think of doing anything.

Harry hadn’t talked to the soldier since he helped them. They had made a lot of eye contact though; whenever he was working he would look over a few men to find the older boy staring at him. He didn’t tell Zayn about it and Liam didn’t even remember what had happened that day, so it was all fine.

Liam was pretty sick and Harry had no idea why. With Zayn’s help, they eventually found someone who studied a little bit of medicine; he didn’t know much about the topic, but at least he gave them some advice to take care of Liam. Harry thought he could switch jobs with Liam so he didn’t have to strain himself so much. He thought of asking Soldier Tomlinson if he could do it, but he didn’t know how the officer would take it; after all, he had helped them just for the sake of not losing another man: they were running out of workforce. It wasn’t like he was friends with the soldier; he was just another prisoner in the hell of place they were in.

To top it all, Soldier Howitzer was the one in charge of Liam’s group, which meant that any mistake he made was severely punished. Harry guessed that’s why Liam wasn’t getting any better; he got beaten up every other day.

It was all so hard for Harry, he felt as if this camp had taken Liam away from him. They hadn’t had a proper conversation since they were brought up here. Liam talked more to Zayn than he did to Harry. He thought that it might be because Harry reminded him of his family. When his family had been killed, there were certain things or places like violins (Gemma used to play violin), or coffee shops that reminded him of them, and he didn’t like seeing them. He knew they were just usual things, but he couldn’t help but think of his happy life with his mother and sister before these monsters took them away from him. It just hurt him. Harry assumed this was what was going on with Liam. Maybe, Harry reminded him of his parents’ kindness, or maybe of his sisters’ playfulness. Maybe Harry’s presence hurt Liam.

They still talked sometimes, and Harry knew Liam still cared about him. They still loved each other, they were brothers after all.  
It was pretty hard to make someone laugh in these circumstances, but Liam, Zayn and Harry had managed to make each other laugh sometimes. This was what kept Harry from feeling lonely. He knew there were men completely alone; their families had been taken away from all of them. Some of them were taking it surprisingly well, but there were others that couldn’t even sleep at night. Harry heard a lot of crying at night. He was someway thankful that he had lost his family so long ago, otherwise he’d be living the hell Liam and all of these other men were living at the moment.

 

It was two weeks after that Harry talked to Soldier Tomlinson again. They were now working on putting the steel tubes to support the chamber. Somehow Harry and Zayn always got the easier jobs and Liam got the hardest. They had to carry the steel tubes to the other side of the chamber just to hand it over to another guy. Liam, on the other hand, had to climb up some portable stairs and carry the tubes with him to adjust them on the bars that would support the ceiling. Harry still couldn’t help but get the cold, disturbing feeling whenever he remembered that they were literally building the place of their deaths.

He was struggling with two steel tubes and he had just set off to walk to the other side. It was about three hours after lunch and he was already feeling the usual exhaustion. His face was full of hot sweat and his hands were aching begging him to drop the tubes. Zayn was ahead of him, his body wasn’t taking the lack of food as gravely as Harry’s was. He had this really bad stomachache due to the hunger and he was feeling lightheaded.

He looked over at Soldier Tomlinson who was eyeing him from behind. The soldier looked back at him and they made eye contact for just a second before the blue eyed boy broke it and turned to look at Soldier Horan. Harry was too fond on the older guys’ eyes and thin lips and softness. This ‘distraction’, as Harry would call it, made him drop one of the tubes, which landed right on his foot. Harry gasped at the terrible pain. He felt as if his foot had just broken in half. The man walking behind him passed right by him without even bothering to help. Harry was now sitting on the ground trying his best not to cry, biting his bottom lip and begging that any of the soldiers happened to look over at him. He looked around him and realized that he was alone; all of the men of his group were already at the other side of the construction, too far away from him. The other groups were too busy with their jobs that they didn’t even take notice of Harry.

He was trying to take the heavy tube off his foot, when he felt two arms helping him up and saw a foot kicking the tube so it rolled away from him. Harry looked up to find a pair of blue eyes looking gently at him. He felt his heart racing.

“T-thanks” He muttered awkwardly. The soldier looked around to check there was nobody watching them and smiled at him.

“Are you okay?” He asked softly.

“Uh, I think I hurt my foot” Harry answered still struggling to keep himself up.

“Do you need to go to the infirmary?” Soldier Tomlinson checked once again if someone was watching them.

“Er-“

“I’ll take you” the older boy offered.

“It’s alright. I don’t want to cause trouble-“

“It won’t cause any trouble, it won’t take long” The soldier insisted.

“Oh, okay” Harry said lamely. The soldier made sure that Harry could stand by himself and took a hold of the tubes; he carried them back to where Harry and the others were picking them and rushed back to the younger boy.

“Hang on a second, stay here” he said looking directly at Harry’s eyes, who just nodded.

He saw the officer hurrying to where Soldier Howitzer was and telling him something Harry couldn’t hear, then he pointed at Harry, the taller soldier nodded and he came back running towards Harry.

“Alright, c’mon” The soldier said helping Harry “I’m going to drag you until we get to the entrance”. Harry looked at him in confusion, but the soldier ignored him, taking both of his arms carefully.

“Why can’t any of these pigs do things right?” Soldier Tomlinson growled. Harry frowned but he still let himself be dragged. He got some worried looks and saw Liam looking at him with tears in his eyes. Harry tried to signal him that the officer wasn’t going to hurt him, but Liam didn’t seem to get the message: he looked at him with the same pale, sick face.

When they got to the main doors of the construction, the soldier helped Harry up and held his shoulders glancing at him.

“Can you walk by yourself?”

Harry hesitated.

“Clearly that means no” He grinned as he held the other boys’ shoulders and helped him walking.  
They were quiet for a few seconds until Harry broke the silence.

“Why are you doing this?” He asked.

“Because you can’t walk by yourself” Soldier Tomlinson answered simply.

“No, I mean… Why are you being so nice to me?” He asked curiously.

“Oh” He stopped walking for a second. “I just don’t think it’s fair, like, what you’ve been through” He said without any hint of nerves or awkwardness, he spoke honestly.

“Yeah, but you’re not like that with the others” He protested.

The soldier didn’t answer immediately; he looked down at the ground as they got closer to the doors of the camp. Harry didn’t say anything either.

“As I said before, I guess I understand” He said after a moment or two. Harry sighed; this whole ‘I understand’ thing was annoying him. He didn’t think a bit about what he said next.

“Then why did you kill that man?” He asked abruptly. The soldier looked at him suddenly, with a little bit of confusion and hurt in his eyes.

“What?” He asked coolly.

“If you understand, why did you kill that man?” Harry asked again.  
“Listen, this is something I should not and do not want to talk about” He snapped.

“Well, this is something I need and want to know” Harry snapped back. His sudden sassiness was surprising himself.

The soldier smiled at the ground and chuckled softly.

“Maybe I’ll tell you another time” He said.

“Oh, so there’s going to be another time?” Harry asked in a flirty yet shocked tone.

“There will probably be another time” The soldier answered with a playful look on his face and Harry found it so adorable; he couldn’t help but smile widely.

“Okay” Soldier Tomlinson broke the eye contact again and Harry hated it. He hated the fact that they got to the infirmary so fast, he hated that he wouldn’t be able to talk to him again in such a long time, but what he hated the most was hating all of that. “There’ll be a woman, she’ll help you with your foot” He said not taking his eyes away from Harry. 

“Good luck and come back once they have fixed it” He winked and walked away.

He winked, Harry repeated to himself. He winked.

“Thank you… sir” He said awkwardly before the soldier got away. The blue eyed boy just stopped, looked back at him and said:

“Just call me Louis, for fucks sake” And he was gone.

Harry scuffled to the infirmary with a smile from ear to ear on his face.

 

*

Harry hobbled back to the construction land with a band covering his right foot. When he got there, his eyes instantly scanned for Louis. When he found him he hid a smile and walked back to the place where the pile of tubes was.

As soon as he grabbed the tubes, he felt a hand on his shoulders.

“What happened?” He hears Zayn’s worried voice from behind.

“Oh” Harry was still living on a dream. “Nothing”

Zayn frowned.

“So the soldier dragged you away to the camp and nothing happened?” He said suspiciously.

“No”

“Harry…” Zayn kept looking at him with those beautiful hazel eyes.

“Okay fine!” Harry admitted cheerfully. “I’ll tell you later”

\---------------

 

The next day Liam was as sick as he was the day before; he wasn’t getting any better and Harry feared he was getting even worse. He had coughed last night; he had coughed almost the whole night. Harry was patting him softly on the back, and it was when he heard Liam’s sobs that he hugged him tight and started whispering things like “everything’s going to be fine” or “I love you, Li, you’ll be alright” to his ear.

The familiar whistle pounded on Harry’s ear and he was about to wake Liam up, but he noticed he was already awake with red and puffy eyes. Harry held Liam’s hand tight; the older boy returned the gesture by squeezing both of their hands.

“I’ll try to get you help today, okay?” Harry said softly. Liam nodded and cleaned his nose with his sleeve. “You’ll be alright, you’ll see” Harry smiled and helped him get up.

Zayn started making conversation with the both of them just to keep them all from thinking about the possibility of Liam dying soon.

“So, Harry, what happened yesterday?” Zayn asked playfully. Liam looked at Harry with big curious eyes.

“Oh, it was nothing”

“What happened, Haz?” Liam asked trying to sound playful as well, but the shakiness of his voice didn’t help.

Harry smiled.

“Well, Lo-“ He stopped himself. “Soldier Tomlinson just took me to the infirmary and we talked a little bit” Harry said simply thanking god that the boys didn’t know what the  
soldier’s name was.

“So you just talked” Zayn furrowed his eyebrows.

“Yeah…”

Zayn and Liam hummed suspiciously which made Harry let out a giggle.

“We’re just kidding, mate” Zayn said now serious. “That’d be fucked up”

Harry gulped and nodded.

When they got to the construction Liam started walking to his spot, but Harry stopped him.

“Hey Li” He called. “Good luck, I’ll try to get you help. I love you” He said as he hugged Liam.

“Thanks, Harry. I love you too” He played a little with Harry’s curls and turned around.

“Good luck, mate” said Zayn as he embraced Liam. “See you at lunch” He said with a smile.

“See you” Liam smiled sweetly at both of them and left.

 

It was about midday, just a few minutes before lunch, when Harry heard a crashing sound near him as he walked. He stopped and so did Zayn, who was next to him. They looked over to see what had happened. Harry couldn’t manage to see anything at all; there were too many people in front of him.

“That boy’s sick, isn’t he the one that got scourged last time?” He heard a voice said. Harry heart stopped.

He dropped the tubes and noticed that Zayn did the same thing; they made their way between all of the men and saw Liam lying there with an injured hand and the portable stairs on the floor.

“Not again” Soldier Howitzer said walking towards Liam. “Soldier Tomlinson, come here!” He called.

Harry caught a glimpse of Louis hurrying to get there, and he also saw how the soldier’s face went blank when he saw Liam.

“Shoot him” Howitzer ordered harshly.

“What?” Louis looked at the other soldier with cold eyes.

“I said shoot him” He repeated.

Harry felt a knot in his throat and he felt how his stomach went empty. He felt his eyes prickling with tears threatening to come and he felt weak enough to pass out right there, but he didn’t, he didn’t move, he just stared at the scene in front of him.

“No”

“Excuse me?” Howitzer asked shocked.

“We need workforce, we cannot afford to lose more people” Louis said firmly.

“He is useless, look at him!” The other soldier growled.

“He will get better. We have been losing a lot of-“ He stopped and looked over at the men. “Go to work!” He roared. Most people went back to walking. Harry picked his tubes up but stayed right there with Zayn by his side. “We have lost a bunch of people just because they make stupid mistakes. You know they are not going to send more Jews, these ones have to end this construction”

“If it is necessary they will send more of them” Howitzer argued, his face was heating up and Harry could see the anger building up in him.

“They will not, you know that they won’t” Louis said again firmly.

“They will” Were Howitzer’s last words before he took a hold of his gunshot and without taking his eyes off Louis, shot Liam right in the middle of his chest.

The air left Harry’s lungs for a second, he felt his heart drop.

“NO!” He bellowed. “NO! LIAM, NO!” He screamed. “No, no, no” He gasped and he felt the tears already flowing. “Please! Liam” He rushed to Liam’s body and got on his knees next to him. He saw the blood pouring out of his chest, and his pale, lifeless face. “Liam…” He tried desperately to stop the bleeding by putting his hands on Liam’s chest. Then he felt another body approaching them. Zayn held Liam’s head while Harry still tried to stop the bleeding, but deep inside he knew there was nothing they could do. “Liam, please, Liam look at me” He pleaded.

“Go back to work, you pigs” He heard Howitzer’s distant scream and felt to arms pulling him roughly. He pulled back holding on to Liam’s body as tight as he could. “Go back to work or I’ll shoot you both!” Howitzer roared.

“Liam” Zayn whispered to himself. Harry saw how he closed Liam’s eyes and how a tear landed on Liam’s cheek making it look as if he was the one crying.

Harry was still struggling against Howitzer, but the soldier was too strong. He didn’t know what was worse, closing his eyes or keeping them open. He couldn’t stand seeing Liam’s body lying there, but he couldn’t stand not seeing it. He was crying uncontrollably. He could hardly breathe.

Soldier Howitzer grabbed him roughly and pushed him back to the construction. Zayn helped him up and forced him to walk back to where they had left the tubes.

“Liam” Harry mumbled.

“I’m so sorry, Harry. I’m so sorry” he heard Zayn’s muffled voice. 

He just kept playing Liam’s name again and again on his mind and even as hard as he tried, the tears didn’t stop coming. It seemed to him like they were never going to stop coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm sorry for taking so long in updating, I've been kind of busy. I wanted to thank everyone's who's been reading this sicne the beginning and I know the story has gone a little bit slow until now, but things are starting to happen :) Here's the link for the trailer of the fic : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsaVxknLY4E . Thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 8

Harry saw as Louis closed the gates of the camp as he reluctantly walked back to the barracks with Zayn’s hand on his back pushing him along. His eyes were ablaze from all the crying and he still couldn’t take his hand off his chest; he felt like if he did, his heart was going to ache worse than it was already aching. He felt like if he took his hand off his chest, he would lose control of the sudden quietness and odd calmness that had gotten into him when the whistle sounded. He couldn’t get himself to look back at the construction land. He couldn’t and wouldn’t bare knowing that Liam’s body was still there, decomposing itself and waiting to be burnt when there are more corpses. Harry didn’t know he still had so much water in his body because the tears were still coming, even though they were softer and slower now, they were still there. He knew Zayn was also crying; he had been crying since they were forced back to work. They had only known each other for about a month and a half, but as Harry had noticed, he and Liam had become extremely close.

Harry had forgotten what it felt like to lose a relative, specially the one that had always been there for him; the one that had wiped his tears when he had dreams about his family, the one that made had him laugh even when there was nothing at all to laugh about, the one that had taken the role of his brother and never let it go. He had forgotten about the constant feeling of loneliness that he could not possibly fight, because he knew it, he was alone. He had Zayn, sure, but did he really have him? Did Zayn really care about him? He would never know. 

When they finally got to the barracks, Harry walked slowly to the his side of the platform and felt a literal hole in the middle of his chest when he saw Liam’s spot, right there next to his. He carefully stared at the pillow that was never to be used, to be touched again by the body that had slept on it last night. It was a dusty old pillow, that wasn’t really a pillow, it was just a piece of dirty fabric that Liam had taken as a pillow, yet it still had so much significance to Harry. Well, it didn’t until now; until he realized it was the only thing he had to remember Liam because everything else was taken from him. He stared deeply into the so called pillow, but he didn’t dare touch it. He curled up on his side of the ‘bed’ and closed his eyes and even then, tears were still coming. They weren’t coming in the way they did when he saw Liam’s body lying on the ground, they were coming slowly: suddenly stopping and then abruptly showing up again. 

He was about to drift off when he felt an arm around him. He froze on the spot. He knew it wasn’t Liam, but just the thought of his arms around him when sleeping stabbed his heart with a sharp cold knife. Then he realized it was Zayn; the thin wrist and long fingers holding him told him so. He felt the need to push him away and make him go back to his spot, because this was Liam’s and no one could ever replace Liam; but he knew Zayn needed someone and Harry did too, so he just snuggled closer to him and closed his eyes again. 

It took him so long to finally get to fall asleep, but eventually he did; not thinking about his beloved friend, but about the beautiful boy that had refused to kill Liam, the boy with the greyish blue eyes that he liked so much, the boy with the softest eyes he had ever seen, the boy he was growing to care about, but unfortunately above all, the Nazi soldier.

*

“Oi, Louis!” Niall called as he threw a dirty sock at him. 

“What?” Louis answered annoyed.

“What’s wrong?” He asked with a frown. “You’ve been looking at the window for like ten minutes straight” He walked over to him and snapped his fingers, which caused Louis to blink and look at him instead. He just shrugged. 

Niall was about to argue when they heard Georg come in. They both turned to look at him: Niall gave him a small smile, but Louis just glared at him. 

“What’s with the creepy stare?” Georg scoffed. Louis just dropped his gaze embarrassed, but he hid it quickly and ignored him. “What? Are you mad because I killed the Jew?” He asked mockingly. 

Louis remained quiet. 

“You know you’re not my boss, right?” Georg said now with his eyebrows furrowed and smiling in a sort of… dangerous way. 

“Oh, right, because when Schulz gave us this job he didn’t say I was the one in charge” Louis said with a sarcastic laugh. 

“That doesn’t mean you’re more important than me” Georg answered dumbly. 

“Yes, it actually does, Georg” Louis said standing up, annoyance growing inside him. “That means I am the one to take the final decisions. You have the right to punish and give orders, but I am the one that has the final word” He said firmly.   
Georg didn’t answer.

“I think Niall understands that pretty well, but maybe, I don’t know, you’re forgetting about it?” Louis’ tone of voice was growing louder with every word. 

“Are you sure that’s what’s been bugging you, Louis?” The soldier walked up to him and looked at him with a threatening glare. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Oh, nothing… I just want to make sure you’re not softening up with the Jews” He said. 

“What?” Louis choked because deep inside he knew exactly what the soldier was talking about. 

“Oh, you know what I’m talking about” He said. After a while when none of them said nothing, Georg looked at him with a rather pitiful look. “Just remember that they are here to work and die, that’s their only mean in this world, dying” He said simply, smiled and walked back to his bed. 

Louis let out a long breath that he had subconsciously been holding and took his pants off. He thought of taking his undershirt, but it was freezing cold, so he didn’t. He looked back at Niall who was already lying on his bed reading a small book. When he took notice of the older boy staring at him, he smiled widely and him and gave him a ‘don’t listen to him’ face. Louis smiled back and put his thin cover on. 

“Good night” He said shortly and received two mumbled replies from the other soldiers. 

Louis lay awake for about an hour before he could get to sleep. His mind was too busy thinking about that Liam boy, about Howitzer being so blatant and not following his orders, but mostly about the beautiful curly haired boy with emerald green eyes and the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Hell, that boy’s smile was that kind of things you would give anything to see again, and it was also the kind of thing that would literally ache whenever it was not there. 

The image of Harry being dragged away from his friend’s body with tears in his eyes and deafening screams leaving him came to Louis’ mind and he had to open his eyes for a second just to avoid feeling the pain Harry had surely felt in that moment. He wanted so bad to take him in his arms and hold him until the last tear had left his cheeks. He was not sure of why he felt the need to do that, or why he felt the need to talk to him whenever he saw him working or walking back to the camp. He sure knew it was wrong, and that he would get in so much trouble if someone, apart from Niall, found out, but he couldn’t help it. 

That boy had been the end of him. 

He had been a fine soldier with a clear view of the people that were brought up here. He had known exactly what he had to do, and he had known that the Jews were people not to trust. But then this boy came along, with his beautiful green eyes and dimples and brown curls that made him feel like he was in heaven, because never in his life had he seen someone as beautiful as him. He ignored it at first, convincing himself that he was just another miserable Jew that came to work and die like the rest of them. But then, when he killed that man, he caught a glimpse of Harry’s green shocked eyes, as if all is innocence was taken away from him. 

He decided to keep ignoring the constant odd feeling he got whenever he handed the boy his lunch. But then, with Louis’ luck, Harry shows up giving him his beloved bracelet. He tried his best to look angry, instead of surprised or thankful, but he doubted he did well. 

To top it all, when Louis was doing his best to stop looking at Harry the way and the many times he was looking at him, he comes one night with his friends in his arms begging desperately for help. He was doing good, Louis had thought, he was handling the situation perfectly by saying no, but when Harry said Liam was the only person he had left, Louis’ heart clenched and next thing he knows, he’s hurrying to open the infirmary and helping them. He didn’t even know why he had started talking to him, telling him about his mom for God’s sake. He told a completely stranger, adding that he’s a Jew, about his mom: something he had never told anyone ever before. He regretted it at once, but then the green eyed boy started telling him it wasn’t his fault and giving him explanations that nobody else had ever given him; words that he was craving to hear. 

Since that day, Louis gave up; he knew there was no way to hide the attraction he felt towards Harry. He knew it was fucked up, really, but what could he do? He knew the answer to that question, but he didn’t want to think of it. 

Louis was a wreck; he had no idea what to do next. He wanted to talk again to the boy; he wanted to clear his thoughts. This boy gave him some sort of peace inside of him; he made him feel like everything was possible, whenever he saw him smiling or heard his voice his mind wasn’t longer in charge, his heart was. 

His mind was now dominated with thoughts about what Georg had said later. Was he really softening with the Jews? He was definitely softening with Harry, but that was an exception. Maybe that’s what Howitzer meant. No one knew or could know about this little ‘crush’ as Louis liked to call it. He was scared that somebody would find out about his condition because yes, he may be the Commandants and Sergeants’ favourite because of his so well-known father or maybe just maybe and Louis didn’t like to think it was because of that, because he was the harshest and roughest one of the three soldiers. Anyways, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t blow his head off as soon as they discovered he was gay.   
They wouldn’t even hesitate. 

Louis had to admit, he had had some inappropriate thoughts about the boy, of course. Who wouldn’t? He was beautiful and his body was just perfect. He had seen all of them shirtless and they were so thin it made Louis sick to remember, their skin was attached to their ribs and they were unbelievably skinny. But then when Harry took off his so called shirt; that was a different story: he still had firm muscles, his chest was lean but not bony and his stomach still had a mark of the abs he used to have. Louis had found it hard to look away once he glanced at it; he literally had had to force himself to keep walking. Later that day, he had found himself thinking about the beautiful boy and his flawless body. 

Now, thinking back to their last encounter; he regretted every bit of it. He had been so damn flirty and had told the boy that they were going to be seeing each other later on. Harry had given him a smile, and he didn’t know if he should feel happy or scared that the boy was flirting back.

He wanted to know everything about this boy, even though he knew it was wrong and that finding a moment when he could spend alone time with him was impossible, but he still felt the need to know him and to protect him. The latter need was a weird feeling taking into account that, for Christ’s sake he was a Nazi and Harry a Jew, but he still felt like Harry was weak and alone and he needed someone to care about him. And there he was, Louis as the dumbass he was, willing to bring himself to care about him. 

His own thoughts got him stressed, so he decided to drop it and sleep. He didn’t realize how tired he was until he closed his eyes and fell asleep faster than light. 

 

The next day, Louis woke up at the sound of Niall in the shower. He sighed and refused to get up; he didn’t want to face Howitzer today, he didn’t feel like yelling at the Jews, but mostly, he didn’t want to see Harry’s swollen eyes and blank stare, he knew he would be showing no emotion at all, because that’s what he did when his mother died; he didn’t want to let people see the hurt in his eyes, so he just hid it. He didn’t want to hand Harry his lunch and see how he tries to avoid eye contact or any kind of contact at all. He didn’t want to see a new Harry. 

“Lou! Go and take a shower” Niall said softly. “We don’t want to be late” 

“Who cares if we’re late, they’re probably sleeping anyway” Louis groaned. 

“Howitzer cares” He pointed out. 

“Screw Howitzer” Louis spat. “If he wants to be mad then let him” He was already getting a headache. 

“But what if tells on us?” 

“He won’t. Schulz hates him, he won’t listen to him” Louis answered. 

Niall seemed to agree, so let dropped it. 

Louis did know he had to shower and be there early though, he couldn’t risk it. So he got up and took a cold and quick shower. When he dressed himself he opened the door of the small room and gestured Niall to move. 

“I can’t find the whistle” Niall said as he looked under his bed. 

“I’ve got it, dumbass” He said pointing at the whistle hanging from his neck. 

“Oh” Niall walked towards him. “Did I tell you my mum sent a letter yesterday?” He said excitedly. 

“Yeah? What did she say?” 

“She’s getting me outta here soon” He admitted in a bittersweet tone. 

“What?!” Louis choked. “N-no! You can’t leave!” He protested. 

“C’mon Louis, you know I hate it here” He said. “And I suck at it. I’m not harsh or demanding, not like you and Howitzer” He added. 

“I wish I could get out of here” Louis mumbled mostly to himself. 

“But you’re good at it” Niall looked at him and furrowed his brows. “And you like being mean to those people” 

“I don’t like being mean to them” Louis complained. 

“Of course you do, haven’t you seen yourself?” 

“Well, I guess I… changed” Louis said as low as he could. Niall frowned. 

“What do you mean you’ve changed? You can’t change your ideals from one day to another” He said. 

“Ideals?” Now Louis frowned. “You do know I’ve never liked this regimen” He said as if he had already told this a million times. “I’m just following my father’s example” Or was, he thought about adding, but didn’t. 

They kept quiet until they got to the barracks. Louis blew the whistle and waited for the first Jews to come out, hoping that one of them would be Harry, but it wasn’t, so he reluctantly started walking along with Niall towards the entrance of the camp. Howitzer was behind them, he had woken up early to get some breakfast. Neither of them bothered to talk to him. 

When they got to the construction land, Louis grabbed the keys and opened the gates. He gulped thinking about him leading the same group of people he was leading right now to their deaths. He forced himself not to think about the boy and continued walking. All of them walked to their places and started working. Louis was looking for a mass of brown curls among all of them, but couldn’t find it. Where was Harry?

An hour passed and Louis was still looking for the boy, he saw the black haired guy who was always with him and next to him he saw a boy with a stripped bonnet on his head, he focused his attention on this boy and he finally saw the brown curls that poked out of the bonnet. He swallowed thickly and walked closer to him with no other intention that seeing Harry. When he did he only caught a glimpse of the boys’ sad, hopeless and sore face.


End file.
